[P4751] Spaces of Youth Political Engagement Six Years after the 2011 Uprisings

Created by Linda HerreraSunday, 11/19/17 8:00am

SUMMARY:

The uprisings of 2010/2011 shined a global spotlight on youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Those young people who organized civil disobedience and participated in street protests were celebrated by Western media and academia as champions of democracy, often with unrealistically high expectations. After the state crackdowns on protests, combined with the escalation of regional /geopolitical conflicts, researchers and journalists seem to have lost interest in the continued, if less visible, struggles of young activists, broadly defined, in the region.
This panel deals with spaces of youth political engagement six years after the uprisings, after youth exited, and were forced out of, public spaces. Given the difficult political environment and deteriorating economic situation, research in the region will focus - again - on the less visible forms of political engagement. Moreover, with precarity now an overwhelming condition of being young, any discussion of 'youth' in the region, needs to take into consideration how young people cope with and try to mitigate insecurity.
Against this backdrop, we present timely youth research from the post-uprising period that deals with employment, religious reform, war, and identity politics from Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco.
Papers will address pertinent questions including:
1. What are some current arenas for political engagement and what are young people's understandings of 'the political'. To what extent are the events of 2011 relevant for their engagement?
2. What challenges do young people face as they struggle to achieve a life of dignity and livelihoods within the constraints of gerontocratic institutions, widespread surveillance, war, and political repression?
3. Are there new conceptual frames and discursive spaces from which to understand, see, and engage with youth politics in the current historical juncture?
4. Under conditions of or insecurity and unpredictability, how do young people make sense of the past (memory) and imagine the future?
5. How do religion, sect, minority status, and other forms and social spatial location affect types of youth political engagement?